Avriel Hooks (left) and Michael L. Perry III.Photo:Lynchburg Police Department; Blue Ridge Regional Jail
Lynchburg Police Department; Blue Ridge Regional Jail
A Virginia husband who pleaded for his missing wife’s safe return on social media has been charged with murder, authorities said.
On Aug. 29, the Lynchburg Police Department said in anews releasethat Michael L. Perry III, 21, had been arrested on charges of second-degree murder and unlawful disposal of a dead body in connection with the death of Avriel Hooks, 20.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
Perry had posted about his missing wife on Facebook less than a week before he was arrested.
“If you know how much I love my wife and my son, you would understand how hurt I am,” he wrote onFacebook.“I’m constantly searching and looking everywhere for my wife. I’m not okay. This is the mother of my child. I’m lost.”
Another post reads, “My wife is missing. I’m not okay yo. The police questioned me for 5 hours [and] held me for 12. I need any information you can give. I’m a husband and a father. She’s my wife and the mother of my child. We miss her.”
At the start of the missing persons investigation, police said Hooks’ disappearance was “suspicious” because she had suddenly stopped communicating with her family, police said.
Avriel Hooks.GoFundMe
GoFundMe
Hooks’ mother, Ashley Pittman, told WSET that she received a text from her daughter around 6 a.m. the day she was reported missing, but she doesn’t think Hooks actually was the person who sent it. Pittman claimed the text said Hooks needed some “me time,” at a friend’s house which she said wasn’t the way her daughter would normally communicate.
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After some time, Perry was considered a person of interest and was taken into custody for questioning. That’s when police also shared that the Amherst County Sheriff’s Office had discovered a body while searching for Hooks. Charges against Perry were then filed.
“Our thoughts are with the family of Avriel Hooks during this difficult time,” police said in the release.
Perry was taken to the Blue Ridge Regional Jail, where he is being held without bond, police said. It’s unclear if he has entered a plea or retained an attorney to speak on his behalf.
AGoFundMe campaignhas been set up to help Hooks' family with funeral expenses.
source: people.com
